Disposable individual serving beverage containers provide portability and convenience. Though they must be inexpensive to manufacture so as not to add unduly to the cost of the contained beverage, they must also satisfy a number of physical, structural and aesthetic criteria to meet packaging and shipping requirements and various consumer desires. When empty, it is desirable that disposable beverage containers can be recycled or repurposed. Additionally, consumers have a strong preference for natural products, particularly for containers that hold edible foods or beverages.
Several types of disposable beverage containers are conventionally available, each of which has advantages and disadvantages. These include plastic bottles, aluminum cans, glass bottles, and laminated paper beverage containers.
Plastic bottles are inexpensive and transparent, plus they provide a good gas and moisture barrier and do not break. However, plastic bottles are made from non-renewable petroleum, the extraction of which is environmentally damaging. In addition, the manufacturing of the bottles is very energy intensive. Plastic bottles are recyclable, but not biodegradable. It has been shown that 75-80% of these bottles end up as solid waste in landfills in the United States.
Aluminum cans are quite common, but costs are high for the extraction of the bauxite (required in the production of the aluminum) and the manufacturing of the cans. Additionally, manufacturing uses large amounts of energy and produces a variety of pollutants. Consumers may dislike aluminum cans because the cans cannot be resealed after opening, the aluminum may impart a taste to the contained product, and there may be a fear of leaching of the aluminum into the contained product.
Glass beverage bottles, which are beloved by many, provide transparency and good chemical stability, so do not impart a taste to the enclosed product. Glass is made of more plentiful materials (mainly sand and silica) than the petroleum used in plastic bottles or the bauxite used in aluminum cans, and these materials, though non-renewable, are less environmentally damaging to extract. However, glass bottles are much more expensive to transport due to both the fragility of glass (better packaging is required) and particularly due to the weight of glass—a glass bottle weighs from ten to over twenty times more than an aluminum can or a plastic bottle. A 2005 German study showed that the manufacturing and distribution of glass bottles used twice the amount of energy used in the manufacturing and distribution of plastic bottles.
Paperboard beverage containers are generally formed of multiple layers, with a layer of paper (about 75%), with one or more thin layers of polyethylene (about 20%), and with a one or more layers of aluminum foil (about 5%); thus, they are manufactured primarily from renewable forest resources. The Boston-based Tellus Institute for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported in a study in the early 1990's that paperboard beverage containers have the lowest environmental impact of any beverage container. Their lighter weight, unbreakable material and squared-off shape allow efficient and less costly transportation. Paperboard beverage containers are recyclable. However, consumers have a strong preference for a beverage container that increases the use of natural products.
Though several different types of beverage container have been developed and each may meet the needs of some applications, each type has disadvantages. Additionally, there are commercial advantages to a novel container that attracts the attention of consumers, who may preferentially purchase the contained product due to the novelty of the container.
Accordingly, there is a need for a beverage container that may encourage sales of the contained product due to novelty of the container and that utilizes a larger percentage of natural cork materials than other beverage containers.